Opinion | Features

Enough with the cooking shows already says media trading director Sam Tedesco. The market saturation is not doing anything positive for the ratings.
Like most members of the Australian TV viewing audience, I love a good cooking show. Right now, though, I need a break from high-pressure personality-driven food formats.

In this opinion piece Kevin Fitzsimons argues SBS documentary Go Back to Where You Came From demonstrates how people will accept ideas more readily when they are shown them.
‘People don’t do conceptual,’ was one of the best pieces of advice I received early on in my marketing career.
It took a while for me to grasp the value of the advice and even longer to apply it.

Australia's biggest supermarket is struggling. Steve Jones spoke to industry experts about how Woolworths' marketing strategy has faltered, and whether the brand can revive its fortunes.
When Woolworths chief executive Grant O’Brien fell on his sword last month after another disappointing set of quarterly figures, it surprised no one.
Without a chief marketer following the abrupt dismissal of Tony Phillips – and with several other high profile executives exiting stage left in recent months – it was just another in a long line of senior level departures at the embattled supermarket.

Media commentators not condemning the booing of AFL star Adam Goodes are effectively condoning bullying argues Adam Ferrier.
I have always admired Adam Goodes. Dual Brownlow medallist, premiership player, Australian of the Year, continued good work for indigenous people. He certainly deserves respect. Don’t know if I like him or not though, never met the guy.
However, Alan Jones commented on the issue recently and said the reason Goodes is getting booed is just that, ‘Because they just don’t like the fellow’.
What a damaging thing to say, and surely it’s not as simple as that?

After recently switching to ING Direct Ian Sizer says the current ad campaign for the online bank is seriously making him consider switching back.
When you get an ad appearing every single ad break it can be irritating. Some ads though go way beyond irritating and become so infuriating it can totally bugger up your evening.
That’s what happened to me last weekend when my viewing was interrupted on a regular basis by the latest offering from ING Direct.

While storytelling has become one of adland's biggest buzzwords Rob Lowe argues marketers are failing to make the necessary emotional connections.
I remember first hearing people talk about ‘storytelling’ a few years ago. I never quite understood it then and I still don’t fully understand the term now.
In fact, like many others, I think it’s overused marketing jazz.

Ahead of the launch of Seven's new reality format Restaurant Revolution tonightAngely Grecia crunches the numbers to see what sort of a buzz the show is creating on Twitter.
The Restaurant Revolution - the new foodie reality TV-show that sees ordinary Aussies designing and running their own pop-up restaurant to win a grand prize of $200,000 - is alive and well on social media.

Despite all the hype the news dinosaurs still dominate the plains of online news in Australia argues The New Daily editorial director Bruce Guthrie in an address to the Rural Press Club.
One way or another, as a journalist and editor, I’ve had a front-row seat at the migration of news from print to online over the past 20 years. And whenever I reflect on that sometimes painful, often clumsy process I am reminded of the joke about the man who walks into a bar with a frog sitting on his head.

In this opinion piece Mumbrella's Alex Hayes argues Lexus' new Heartbeat Car stunt will not raise the pulses of ordinary punters.
I have to admit the new 'world first' Lexus 'Heatbeat Car' leaves me cold.
It comes across as technology for technology's sake - they could have achieved the same results with CGI.

In this guest post, Shabaz Hussain wonders what a posh British drink’s surprise social media win at Wimbledon says about sports sponsorship for brands.
According to a recent Brand Intelligence Report from Amobee the brand most associated with The Championships at Wimbledon in 2015 across social and digital is Pimm’s – a traditional cocktail drink that spectators enjoy at the event.
What makes this more interesting is that fact that they were not an official sponsor of The Championships.

With more than $200m of business in play in Australia due to global pitches. But David Angell asks whether swapping partners will achieve much for these multinationals.
Do you watch soap operas? Of course you don’t, you’re all busy executives with crippling workloads.
But I bet most of you can remember them from younger days.

While some of the figures in the latest RECMA rankings are questionable Nic Christensen argues they still provide an interesting insight on the state of the media industry.
There's something about the RECMA numbers that just does not make sense. But when you ask a bunch of agencies to tell you how much they spend every year you're likely to get some very interesting results.
But despite the inconsistencies they are still the best map of media agencyland, are provide insights around the challenges of staff churn, the rise of programmatic and the broader challenge of falling client spend which are actually quite telling.

The way that blogger and influencer outreach is currently being executed is fast becoming unsustainable, and the industry should be worried argues Louisa Claire
When bloggers began sharing the brands they loved and used in their everyday lives, readers found their endorsement authentic and relatable; it came from someone “just like them”. Research found such backing from “real people” was more successful in swaying purchasing decisions than celebrity endorsements, and marketers opened their eyes to a massive opportunity to leverage bloggers’ voices.
The concept of blogger outreach was born.

Journalism students’ three big mistakes

I’m not sure whether I should feel sorry for Alex Myers, or jealous of him.

But what really got the Charles Sturt University student into trouble was that he appears to have misrepresented himself – he didn’t tell the source that he was writing the piece for a student project.

And that’s a lesson for a lot of journalism students: Be upfront.

But Myers is not alone in this approach. I get a fair few emails and phone calls from journalism students looking for a quote about the media.

And they often go wrong. Here’s a few ways:

1. They obfuscate about being a student journalist.

They either don’t say, they give the name of the college publication as if it’s a consumer title, or they fib that it’s for a mainstream paper when what they mean is that they intend to offer it to them when it’s written.

I understand why they do it. I think they fear that if they admit to being a journalism student, busy people won’t bother to find the time.

It’s a common approach. I reckon about half of those who call me do so.

But anyone with even a tiny profile on a particular topic has heard from student journos plenty of times before – maybe even more often than from the “real” media.. So they don’t fool you.

And it doesn’t get the journo-source relationship off to a great trusting start if you’ve already been caught lying.

In my case, I’m always happy to chat to student journos. But I’ll tend to set the timings more to my convenience than I would if a media outlet was asking, in which case I’m generally their dancing monkey.

There’s another reason for being upfront about it. You’ll get better quotes – if a source knows they’re probably not going to have to justify their quotes later then they’ll often be more outspoken, just because they can.

It happens often enough, that I’m pretty sure most courses don’t address this with their students.

2. They rely email and fear the phone.

I find it quite depressing how many student journalists send me an email asking for my comments on a number of questions by return of email.

I suspect that there are a number of reasons for this. For one, lots of young journos are afraid to pick up the phone. I was. In my first job I used to go and hide in the cuttings library to call contacts where nobody else in the newsroom could hear my awkward attempts.

Less justifiable is convenience. Which tends to annoy me. I do take the view that I’m happy to chat on the phone for ten minutes, but I’m not going to spend half an hour writing you an essay by email just to make your life easier.

I also find myself suspecting that they’re not interested into getting into the heart of a topic if they don’t even want to conduct an actual interview about it.

3. Be persistent

Particularly with young journalists, I think it’s hard for them to picture what it’s like being really busy – I know that I failed to see it. Busy potential sources often don’t actively decide not to talk to someone – it just slips away. Particularly if you don’t follow up.

In my case, I might ask a student journo who calls my mobile to phone back three or four times until they finally pick a moment when I’m clear. I’m happy to do that when the moment comes. But if they don’t call me, then I’m not going to remember to call them. I’d advise to keep trying until you actually get told “No”.

The fact that Alex Myers found himself in trouble while on an exchange to the US does make me wonder. Do American J-schools expect more from their student journalists than we do here?

Comments

Amelia
16 Nov 12
12:52 pm

As a UTS journo student, I learned these lessons pretty quickly this year when I first started studying. Now when I see friends making these mistakes I point them out – I never realised how shy I was until I started the degree and how much it can hold you back, luckily I’ve gotten over that and learned to suck it up!

Isaac
16 Nov 12
2:12 pm

You do have to wonder if misrepresentation is such a big no-no when professionals do it fairly regularly too. Or is it a question of how much obfuscation is acceptable? Case in point: the journo who broke the Alan Jones story failed to declare he was a journalist when getting access to the event.

Louis
16 Nov 12
2:24 pm

Did a student journalist score a job on the SMH? This from a story today…
“…he noted that the home faced either the street or the backyard for the majority of the year”
It seems the word “majority” is misused nowadays the majority of the time … sorry, most of the time.

Shayne
16 Nov 12
2:47 pm

As a teacher of journalism, I’ve had to deal with numerous students who find making a phone call a terrifying prospect.

Regarding transparency, I would have thought the lecturers would have made it clear that before you do an interview, you explain what it’s about and where it will be published.

A lot of students drop out when they realise journalism isn’t a glamorous career and that it is hard work.

Kath
17 Nov 12
1:18 am

I agree with two of those, but from my experiences so far, admitting I’m a student journalist within the patch we work in can severly set me back.

Colleen
19 Nov 12
7:46 am

There is another mistake. I have had students emailing or phoning for information about an assignment. While happy to provide background or data, I expect them to do the research using the information sources I identify. I am wary of taking student calls now due to expectation I will do part of the writing for them.

Jenna
19 Nov 12
8:46 am

I often get approached by students to answer questions on behalf of my clients. I refuse to answer questions by email because I don’t want to write their assignments for them.

If they pick up the phone I will go out of my way to provide them with their answers. Don’t worry about the nerves in asking questions over the phone. I’m going to help you not laugh at you.

Think about this if you’re a journalism student. This could be the difference between a good mark and a great one. It could also see you create a new contact to add to your network – valuable for any aspiring young journalist.

Ed
21 Nov 12
1:29 pm

Tim – Enjoyed this post. Coming from that background myself, I was running parallels while reading between the words you wrote and what young ad kids do (the same things): hype up their ad experience, email don’t call, persistence. Definitely made me think.

Bob
21 Nov 12
2:03 pm

Their first mistake was doing a journalism course…

CL
5 Dec 12
9:49 pm

American J-schools ABSOLUTELY expect more than ours. I’ve done both and I wish I had never studied in Australia. What a waste of time, money and effort.

Their extra-curricular journalism activities also make ours look like kindergarten. The journalism students at the (public, fairly average) school I went to in Colorado ran a daily broadsheet newspaper, a 24/7 radio station, a monthly glossy magazine and a television channel. We’re talking a student-led sales team for advertising and paid editorial staff, too. Compare that to the University of South Australia, which has a single student-run university-wide publication with no paid staff and precious little content.

Mumbrella is bound by the standards of practice of the Australian Press Council. If you believe the standards may have been breached, you may approach Mumbrella itself or contact the council by email at info@presscouncil.org.au or by phone (02) 9261 1930.For further information see www.presscouncil.org.au